Interview to beneficiary in East(PART3)

I live at Kanchikuduchchiaru village is our native place located in the Thirukkovil DS division, Ampara district in the Eastern province. I’m widow and have a daughter 20 years old. We displaced due to war in 2006 and returned in 2010. My husband died due to wild Elephant attack in 2012 while he was doing night watching. Watching in night to safe guard us and our livelihood from animals is my late husband’s main job. Many people benefitted. But, unfortunately he died. Big loss for us.

Other than this there is no hope of any other relief. Therefore have to reorganize our normal life. I myself and the daughter planned to continue doing our livelihood as we do not have other options to earn. We can do cultivation in the rainy season only (4 months from October to January). Ground nut and maize is main products. The difficulty for us is to protect cultivation from wild animals like Elephants, Pigs. Our harvest is less than what we expect due to animal attack, sometimes animals destroy all the cultivated items. After rainy season we have no source of livelihood because we do not have irrigation facilities.

On the other hand basic facilities like house, sanitation are not provided to us and hence we have no protection at all.  We live in small huts, no sleep in the night, so we lead a restless days. We are compelled to live here to protect our lands which are the only hope for us. If we leave the village, the lands will be encroached. Natural resources like mangoes, jack, and coconut are destroyed by the war or damaged by wild animals. Due to this reason we do not have any resources in the village. 
My daughter collects raw materials from outside the village and make brooms and sell to villages thereby we get a small income. 

This is the first time I came to know that Organizations are supporting people like us. We never dreamed to receive an Agro well in our village and we never seen such a big well. By this we hope we will manage water requirement and do cultivation in the whole year. I plan to plant about 25 coconut plants. Also from saving I plan to put a small house for my daughter because I like my daughter live permanently here.   

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